Cincinnatus BLOG *** Political Commentary - Social Commentary

  On average home prices have fallen 32.2% since they hit their peak in the second quarter of 2006. In super housing bubble markets like Phoenix and Las Vegas home prices have plummeted by 50% from their all time highs. At the risk of being labeled a cock-eyed optimist I will predict  - The end is near! What makes me so optimistic? Traditionally home prices have tracked inflation. In fact, in the last 50 years home prices have appreciated approximately 1% faster than inflation. There is an internal logic to this trend. If housing prices appreciate at a rate that is appreciably faster than income, within a decade we would be unable to purchase our own homes. And that is exactly what has happened. Fueled by political pressure from the left and… Continue reading | 2 Comments

  Tax havens! Greedy Wall Street bankers! Hedge fund money lenders! Speculators! Shameful profiteers! President Obama's populist demagogic outcries against America's 200-year history of free market capitalism seem limitless. My immigrant grandparents are undoubtedly turning over in their graves to hear such blasphemy from the mouth of the President of the United States. Obama's most recent target - those evil Caribbean tax havens. The current tax-deferral system is merely a ban-aid on a tax system that is openly hostile to American multinational companies. No other major industrial country treats its international business interests with such disdain and puts its companies at such a competitive disadvantage in the global economy. Then we wonder why we have such a large trade deficit. A German firm doing business in Ireland, say, pays no German income… Continue reading | 8 Comments